In a sign that the frenzy over Bitcoin may have reached a new level of ridiculousness, there is now another phenomenon inspired by it: Coinye West, named after the American hip hop artist.

Bitcoin is a new online technology designed as a currency to enable anonymous transactions over the Internet with little or no fees. Bitcoin mining involves pooling together the resources of computers over a network to solve mathematical problems that, theoretically, generate bitcoins as a reward. The software supporting the system is open source, so it has already spawned a number of alternative forms of the technology, such as Ripple, Litecoin and Colored Coins.

Create a new digital currency, name it after rapper Kanye West and delight the online world with this clever, consumer-friendly take on the Bitcoin trend. And it appeared to be working as of last week, when the idea for the cryptocurrency “Coinye West” was first announced, complete with a cartoon version Kanye’s face on its logo and a currency “mining” program called “Gold Digger,” presumably inspired by West’s 2005 hit of the same name.

“We chose Kanye because of his trendsetting abilities and his originality,” the anonymous developers told PC World at the time. Coinye was set to launch on January 11.

Trouble is, nobody asked Kanye about all this, and on Monday his lawyers sent the Coinye developers a cease and desist letter, alleging copyright infringement and accusing the currency’s backers of attempting to profit off of West’s public image.

Lately people’s interests are towards virtual currency- Bitcoin, Dogecoin and now Coinye West. At first I thought the whole Yeezy-inspired cryptocurrency was just a publicity stunt. Then I heard yesterday that Kanye West is on the hunt for its creators. It seems that the rapper's popularity was used without his consent, hmmm. Don’t worry Kanye, I think you'll likely win Coinye lawsuit.